The mistrust factor

In a year when every second citizen of the world will vote to elect a government, there is a debate brewing: do we trust our chosen governments?

All political parties make promises to the electorate. In India, for instance, some parties even issued guarantee papers to the voters during the just-concluded general elections (besides running a toxic, divisive poll campaign). Such political parties are increasingly being elected by people across continents, especially in Europe, America and Asia. Most of the populist governments elected recently have aggressively pursued polarising agenda: on communal and community lines as well as on the economic front. And people have voted on the agenda. So one would tend to assume that the winning political party has a popular mandate to pursue the agenda. Elected governments use this mandate to legitimise their actions.

This might not be the case, as a recent survey shows. Earth4All, a collective of economic thinkers, scientists and advocates, released the findings of a survey conducted in the G20 countries (including India) on trust in their governments. It also covered aspects such as whether the wealthy be taxed more and if people trust that their government is doing enough to save the planet from an environmental meltdown. The survey sought opinions from 22,000 people from the countries that account for 85 per cent of the world GDP.

The Earth4All survey found that just 39 per cent of the people believe that their “government can be trusted to make decisions for the benefit of the majority of people.” The question on their trust in the government to take such beneficial decisions in long run (20-30 years) saw only 37 per cent replying in the affirmative.

This lack of trust in the government reflects people’s desire for reform of both national and global political systems. Nearly two-thirds of the people surveyed wanted changes in the political system of their country. Close to 30 per cent people felt a need for a “complete” reform of their political system.

In India, the survey offers interesting insights on the people’s trust in the political system. On trusting the government for making decisions for the majority, 74 per cent Indians surveyed showed strong confidence. Nearly the same level of trust was recorded for the government making suitable decisions in the long run. A question on which political system will be suitable to run the country, saw 87 per cent vote for “having experts make decisions according to what they think is best for the country”. However, 86 per cent people voted for a “democratic political system”. Among the low-income households surveyed, 83 per cent showed trust on a system run by experts while 79 per cent on the democratic system, which is significantly lower than the overall figure (of 86 per cent) recorded in the survey.

Sandrine Dixson-Declève, executive chair of Earth4All, says the mistrust on government is notable in Europe. He sees the mistrust in context of another significant finding: over two-thirds of the respondents felt that the G20 countries’ economic priority should be health, general wellbeing and nature instead of just creating profit and wealth. “With the recent European elections moving towards the radical right, we need to hold governments accountable to introduce an economy that services people and the planet at the same time,” he says. Owen Gaffney, co-lead of the Earth4All initiative, sums up the findings, saying, “The vast majority of people we surveyed in the world’s largest economies believe major immediate action is needed this decade to tackle climate change and protect nature. At the same time many feel the economy is not working for them and want political and economic reform. It’s possible this may well help explain the rise in populist leaders.”